


i'll be outside when the sky falls down

by i_was_human



Series: what do you desire? [5]
Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Cooking, Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, No Beta, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29826426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_was_human/pseuds/i_was_human
Summary: It's raining when Minsoo first approaches, and that feels like it should set some kind of scene.It doesn't, not really, but he can dream.
Relationships: Kang Dongho | D.Min & Lee Minsoo
Series: what do you desire? [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888651
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	i'll be outside when the sky falls down

The first time Minsoo _really_ talks with Dongho, it's raining.

It's raining, and Minsoo promised to come to MAYHEM's company to pick them up, but when he arrives, Dongho's leaning against the front door with an ice pack held to his cheek and his damp hair plastered to his forehead, and all thoughts of Daehyun and Jaewon fly out the window.

It's clear the elder hasn't noticed his approach - if nothing else, then by the faint smile on his lips - but Minsoo can't think he's ever seen Dongho smile, and a part of him doesn't want to break it.

The spell shatters in an instant when Minsoo's phone buzzes, and Dongho's head jerks up, gentle kindness replaced with harsh indifference. And _fuck_ can Minsoo not believe Dongho's really indifferent towards him - Dongho tries, he knows, tries to make it seem like he is - but Minsoo can't believe that he really _is_ indifferent.

Call it his charm.

"Hey," Minsoo greets, shutting his umbrella and strolling over. Dongho stuffs his ice pack into the pockets of his too-big hoodie - and it must've fit once, Minsoo thinks, based on how worn-out it is - and tips his head back, narrowed eyes landing on Minsoo's face with a look of what can only be called _detached apathy_.

Minsoo knows this look well. 

He's seen it in the mirror too many times to count.

"Daehyun-ah and Jaewon-ah asked me to come pick them up," Minsoo continues, and Dongho's brow ticks up, a look insultingly close to disbelief slipping on his face.

"Really?"

"Why're you so surprised?" Minsoo asks, and Dongho exhales, gaze drifting to the pavement.

"...they're not in today. It's just me."

Minsoo nearly comments on that - what could _just Dongho_ be doing at eight p.m.? - but he lets it lie, instead opting to offer his umbrella to the taller man.

"What?"

"You're taller," Minsoo states, sidling over to lean into Dongho's side. "I don't want either of us to get wet," or, well, _wetter_ , "so you're holding it."

Dongho stares at him for a moment, disbelief mingling with distrust in his eyes, before he sighs, flicking the umbrella open and holding it above Minsoo's head. "C'mon. I'll take you home."

"Not happening!" Minsoo beams, leaning into the elder's side and knocking the umbrella over. "I'm meeting Daehyun-ah and Jaewon-ah for dinner tonight!"

Dongho sighs, reaching up to ruffle his water-logged hair. "Alright. I'll lead the way, then."

The sky's a dark gray as they walk home - gray and dull and _empty_ \- and the color reflects in Dongho's dark eyes as he tugs Minsoo away from a stray sewer grate, a casual warning slipping through his lips. He _knows_ this stretch of sidewalk, Minsoo realizes - knows it intimately - and he's not sure if that's impressive or tragic.

Perhaps it's both.

The silence hanging between them is just the amicable side of awkward, and Minsoo stuffs his hands in his pockets, trying to suppress a shiver. It's cold as _hell_ out here, fall just turning to winter, and from the looks of it, Dongho looks cold, too.

 _Of course he is, dipshit_ , Minsoo scolds himself, staring at the jacket stuck to the elder's thin arms. _He's fucking soaked_.

Knowing Dongho - or, well, remembering all the stories Jaewon and Daehyun told him about Dongho - he's liable to wait to shower until Minsoo does, instead opting to towel off his hair and start making dinner. The natural solution here is to insist Dongho showers first, which he won't do, so Minsoo has an _even better_ solution.

He's going to help Daehyun and Jaewon cook!

Hell, if this goes well, then maybe Kyunghun might even stop considering him a Grade Four danger in the kitchen! 

(he still can't believe he's _grade four_. a fucking _fire_ is grade three, _how is he more dangerous than a literal fire_?)

In any case, Dongho's fully shivering next to him, the umbrella trembling in his damp hands, and Minsoo tugs it out of his grasp, raising it high enough to hopefully keep them both _mostly_ dry. Dongho makes a small noise of thanks, and Minsoo nods, tilting the umbrella just slightly so it hits the breeze.

"You have to tilt it in the direction the rain's coming from," he explains, and Dongho makes a small sound of agreement. "Otherwise it falls at an angle, and you get soaked."

He's sure Dongho knows this - even _more_ sure that Dongho would never let him know if he didn't - and so he opts to continue testing the breeze, a small shriek escaping his lips as the wind nearly tugs the umbrella out of his hands. It's a full-on storm - lighting's even flashing in the distance - and Minsoo yanks the umbrella closer, gripping it with both hands so as to keep it close.

A third hand grips the handle with him, and he raises his head, gaze landing on Dongho's impassive face. He's clearly upset by the storm - the faint scrunch to his lips is proof enough for that - but there's a faint hint of serenity regardless.

 _He probably likes the rain_ , Minsoo decides, squinting through the storm at the buildings ahead. _He seems like the type._

* * *

By the time they arrive at the dorm, they're both well beyond soaked.

Minsoo toes off his water-logged shoes and rolls up his jeans, grimacing at the way they stick to his calves. Next to him, Dongho continues to sneeze as he shrugs off his soaked jacket, and Minsoo sighs, darting into the kitchen to grab a hand towel.

The towel rapidly becomes useless, going from dry to damp to flat-out _wet_ in the span of ten seconds, and Minsoo glares at it, personally offended by how little water it can hold. Who gets a hand towel that can't even dry their hair? Not Minsoo, that's for sure.

Dongho sneezes once more, and Minsoo scowls, pointing to the bathroom at the end of the hall. "Shower. Now."

"You should go first," Dongho insists, then promptly sneezes again.

Way to make his point.

"You're dripping on the floor," Minsoo chastises, shoving him towards the bathroom as gently as he can. "Go shower."

Dongho gives him a scowl that's _eerily_ reminiscent of Taeseok's before sighing, and Minsoo watches as he trudges towards the bathroom, bare feet leaving miniature puddles on the wooden floor.

Hopefully he _actually_ showers and doesn't just sit and pout on the toilet like Taeseok does. 

In any case, Minsoo wrings his hair out before heading for the kitchen, gaze immediately landing on a bright blue sticky note. He yanks it down, gaze landing on Daehyun's handwriting, and he has to reread it three times before he fully understands what it says, because _surely, surely_ he can't be serious.

_"Hey, Minsoo-hyung! Jaewon-hyung and I went out to go get dinner, so you're alone with Dongho-hyung! Have fun making dinner! :D -Dae"_

Minsoo turns, frantically scanning the kitchen, and _oh, no_.

Meat, flour, oil, salt and pepper- 

Daehyun was _serious_?

New goal: _don't burn MAYHEM's kitchen down_.

* * *

The sky's dark when Dongho comes out of the shower, light gray having long-since given way to a dark navy and the faint pinpricks of satellites visible in the gaps between the clouds. The rain's stopped, leaving only the rich smell of petrichor in its wake, and Minsoo's pushed his hair back with a spare rubber band, his lower lip pulled between his teeth and one of Jaewon's spare hoodies hanging off his shoulders.

Dongho knocks on the wall as he enters - seemingly from habit more than anything else - and Minsoo glances at the tank-top falling off his shoulders before he yanks the recipe off the stove, pressing it into the elder's hands without a second thought.

"You can cook, right?"

Dongho blinks at him, bleached-blond hair _drip-drip-dripping_ on the tile, and Minsoo repeats the question, pressing the paper into his hands with a bit more force. It's silent in the dorm save for them, the only sound the gentle _tp-tp-tp_ of residual raindrops and Dongho's damp hair, and Minsoo _hates it_.

(his own dorm is never this quiet.)

"I can cook," Dongho finally affirms, and Minsoo gives him a wicked sort of grin, placing the paper back on the table and starting to root through some cabinets. "What are you looking for?"

"Measuring cups."

"They're here," Dongho simply replies, reaching around him to tap on a side drawer, and Minsoo grins as he yanks it open, producing a series of plastic measuring cups with a sense of triumph that far outweighs the situation.

"Found 'em!"

Dongho's brow ticks upwards a little, but he doesn't otherwise comment, and _god_ does Minsoo hate that. He hates- hates the way Dongho's so silent, hates how he always seems to be curling in on himself, hates how all of MAYHEM look _so damn scared_ all the time, but there's nothing he can do, is there?

There's nothing he can do. 

There's nothing he can do about the bruises mottling Dongho's arms and torso, nothing he can do about the haunted look in his eyes, nothing he can do about the articles and posts and _rumors rumors rumors_ that only spread quicker these days, because after all, _nobody_ in MAYHEM has ever given them any reason to doubt them.

(they have. they have every single day, have every single time jaewon laughs and daehyun sings and dongho gives him one of those smiles that're even more valuable due to rarity-)

Minsoo yanks the rubber band out of his hair and pushes it back once more, grimacing as a few strands fall loose of his messy ponytail. He knows Dongho's surveying him with sharp fox-eyes - he'd be surprised if he wasn't - and it's yet another reminder of just how _wary_ the elder is, _"you do not belong here"_ all but written on Minsoo's chest in glowing neon paint. 

There's not much he can do about that but sit and wait for it to fade, and so wait he does.

Dongho pushes around him to access the stove, pouring a bit of oil into the pan with practiced ease, and he flicks on the burner, the acrid smell of gas immediately filling the space. It's as high as it can go - some sort of speed over logic thing, if Minsoo had to guess - but Dongho pays it no mind, instead opting to lean against the counter and point to the next line of the recipe. 

"Can you cut vegetables?"

"Technically, no," Minsoo edges, "but you can cut _anything_ with a knife and enough willpower-"

"Move over," Dongho sighs, pulling out a cutting board and small knife. "I'm teaching you how to cut vegetables."

He covers Minsoo's hands with his and grips the cucumber firmly, peering over the younger's shoulder as he starts to move the knife up and down. Minsoo's trying to focus as best he can, but it's _hard_ in the total silence, _hard_ when the only sounds are the popping and sizzling of oil and the last bits of rain falling from the sky.

"Do you mind if I put something on?" Minsoo asks, and Dongho shrugs a bit, lop-sided - as if he's evolved past the need for opinions. Maybe he has. Minsoo wouldn't be surprised.

Still, he'll take what he can get.

Soon enough, a calming song in a language Minsoo doesn't know fills the air, and Dongho places the meat in the pan, a sharp _hiss_ filling the air as he takes a step back. If not for the tension in the air, it would feel oddly domestic - just Minsoo cooking with a good friend - but they're _not_ good friends, and this _isn't_ domestic, and a part of Minsoo wants to be _anywhere but here_.

Dongho pushes his hair out of his face with his free hand, brows furrowed in concentration, and Minsoo slides one of the bands off his wrist and offers it to him, a casual smirk perched on his lips. At least, he thinks it's casual - despite all these years of being an idol, he still can't accurately judge how his expressions look to others - but Dongho takes it without a word of protest, so Minsoo counts it as a win. 

He's counting a lot of things as a win that really shouldn't be, he thinks. 

Still, Dongho makes a decent steak and Minsoo didn't chop his finger off while preparing vegetables, so all in all, he's willing to call dinner a success.

They eat in silence, neither one wanting to start conversation, and Dongho offers to wash up, an offer Minsoo (perhaps too enthusiastically) accepts. It's awkward, yes, but more the kind of awkward that comes from spending too much time with someone you've never really spoken to than the awkward of a botched conversation, and Minsoo will _take it_.

Dongho's slender fingers make quick work of the dishes, and Minsoo spends the time fiddling with a new game Kyunghun recommended. It's not too complex - more _frenzied tapping_ than skill, though he'll never say that to his face - and he's about to approach Dongho once more when the door swings open.

"We're home!" Jaewon calls, and though Minsoo will never admit it, in that moment he feels the harshest twinge of _regret_.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope this lived up to the hype!!
> 
> title, as always, from desire by jeremy zucker
> 
> [twit](https://twitter.com/i_was_human_) | [lit fic discord!](https://discord.gg/CNunB74)


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